Competitions & Events

Van't Schip maintains focus

After his side’s tremendous 1-0 win over league leaders Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van’t Schip said his side “have to enjoy the moment”, but maintain focus on the upcoming Melbourne Derby.

After his side-s tremendous 1-0 win over league leaders Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van-t Schip said his side “have to enjoy the moment”, but maintain focus on the upcoming Melbourne Derby.

With the team-s record in 2014 now standing at five wins, two draws and one loss, Melbourne Heart are one of the competition-s form teams; however, van-t Schip has reinforced focus must be on the team's next match.

“We have to enjoy the moment, [but] keep on working hard and next week there is another tough game on the program,” van-t Schip said.

“The most important thing for me… is getting the team playing again and then as a consequence you will get results.”

Van-t Schip believed his side battled well in the first half to hold off the Roar but observed his men were a little too loose with possession during the first period.

This was addressed at the break and it saw the Red and White produce a more dangerous second half display.

“At half time I only changed by saying try to keep the ball more often; we were looking to get forward to quick,” van-t Schip said.

“We started losing the ball too quickly and they got a lot of domination in the midfield.

“We did well, we suffered a bit in the first half but we didn-t give away too many chances.

“In the second half we started playing well ourselves… if you look at the whole game you can-t say we didn-t deserve to win.”

Despite toppling the league leaders, van-t Schip warned that the hard work must continue this week as the Melbourne Derby looms on Saturday.

“Now you-re on a run, you-re on a good momentum but it-s not that we are outplaying every opponent by far, we have to fight for it, we can still make a lot of steps and grow as a team,” van-t Schip said.

“Yes we are improving a lot but we still have our moments were we can do better.

“I also know there will be games where we will struggle, like today, it was the hardest game we have played, against a top side.”

Melbourne Heart-s marquee signing Orlando Engelaar scored his second goal for the club and his first in front of his home fans, topping off a man of the match effort.

“Orlando is important; he was today again, it-s almost his second full game,” van-t Schip said.

“You can see that his contribution to the team is getting better and better… but still Orlando, like the team, can make steps.

“He is improving, he can keep the calmness on the ball... he is helping the team come through different periods.”

Melbourne Heart hosts the Melbourne Derby this Saturday at AAMI Park from 7.45pm.